Planetary Health Research Digest

It is often stated that social media platforms and their algorithms facilitate the spread of misinformation and polarising or otherwise problematic content online. These statements are typically followed with implications that this polarisation is causing an array of the world's social problems—eg, political unrest. However, according to Ceren Budak (University of Michigan School of Information, MI, USA) and colleagues, this might not necessarily be the case; instead they suggest the possibility of correlation, without causation.